I will try to keep this up-to-date at least until free agency begins on March 13 in hopes that it will serve as a resource for those of you who want to mock offseason acquisitions. Cap space is going to dictate what teams can do. For example, Indianapolis and New Orleans both need 3-4 rush linebackers. Anthony Spencer is the best one on the market and will command a hefty contract. The likelihood of Indy being able to fit him in is great, due to their excess of cap space. Meanwhile, the likelihood of New Orleans signing him is miniscule, due to the team being over the cap right off the bat.

Wondering why your team is in red? You're above the salary cap. You're going to have to cut veterans, possibly useful players, to get back in line. Some space can be opened up by restructuring contracts with large base salaries, converting them into guaranteed money spread out over the remaining years of the contract...but remember that you are robbing Peter to pay Paul in these situations; restructuring too much will bite you in the ass hard in future seasons.

Please keep in mind that teams will need some cap space to sign their draft selections, too.

Wow. Colts have $46 million in space. That's a couple FAs maybe stepping in. What if they signed Bowe? I don't know if they would, but a Reggie Wayne, Hilton, and Bowe would be fun to watch. Or take care of some OL needs.

As the case with a number of teams the current cap is drastically higher than the actual hit with restructurings that will occur before the league cap goes into effect.

Just from running numbers with Dallas they can get to about $10million under the cap without even sweating thanks to the way some of their contracts are structured.

If you're talking about restructuring in Dallas, sure, they could get under the cap like that...but then they'd implode next season. The cap's only going to go up by 6 or 7 percent again and they wouldn't be able to cut any of the big money guys because they'd have converted too much money into signing bonuses to gain breathing room for this year.

A lot of teams are having these problems because when they signed big contracts a few years ago, they expected the cap gains to keep being as big as they were in the past. That's not the case anymore and now everyone's starting to feel the pain.

Not bad. Will be interesting to see how they treat vets like Kelsay, McGee, and Wilson. Knowing the Bills, they'll probably be extended rather than released. That's something that transcends a regime. It's just what Bills football is all about.

Is this the year that they are required to meet a certain cap floor, or does that start next year?

Eh, kinda, but that's not really how it works. Teams have to spend a total of 89% of the total cap from the 2013-2016 league years.

For example, if the cap were a steady 100m each season, they'd have to spend a total of $356M (89%) over that 4 year span. They can do that however they want as long as they stay under the cap each year. They don't have to spend 89% each and every year...but I predict that the teams that don't hit that 89% threshold normally (Bengals, Bucs, etc) are going to hover right around it rather than swing far above or far below.